In a season defined by the program’s fall from dominance, Northwestern will have its best opportunity to notch a signature win when it faces No. 4 Central Michigan and at least one other powerhouse program this weekend at the nation’s top wrestling tournament.
The unranked Cats (2-3-1), making their fifth straight trip to the NWCA/Cliff Keen National Duals in Cedar Falls, Iowa, have struggled largely due to heavy turnover from last year’s squad. A year ago the Wildcats were ranked 20th in the country and nearly knocked off then-No. 4 Nebraska (19-18) and then-No. 5 Missouri (25-12) in the same tournament. This weekend’s scores might not be as close.
Coach Tim Cysewski’s squad heads to the Hawkeye State without two wrestlers who went 2-0 in last year’s tournament-two-time NCAA champion Jake Herbert graduated last spring and two-time All-American senior Brandon Precin is redshirting this season. In addition, the Cats will be missing a pair of former NCAA qualifiers in redshirt junior Keith Sulzer (illness) and sophomore standout Jason Welch (redshirting). Each went 1-1 against the Cornhuskers and Tigers.
“We are guaranteed to be wrestling a few of the top teams in the country,” junior Andrew Nadhir said. Every kid we face is going to be nationally ranked. We are not seeded like we have been in the past, so it’s going to be tough. But I am looking forward to seeing guys I wouldn’t see in the Big Ten.”
NU will face either Missouri or No. 5 Minnesota in its second match. The winners of each first-round match will face off in a quarterfinal, while the losers will fall to the consolation bracket.
Beyond looking to a potential fourth straight date with Missouri in the national duals, NU will have to focus on Central Michigan, whose performance in last week’s Midland Championships impressed Cysewski.
“They are a good dual meet team,” he said. “It will come down to matchups, and it could come down to the last match determining who wins it. Our guys are not all that experienced, but we are just as talented as them.”
The Cats have been plagued by slow starts this season, a result of its weaker weight classes having to wrestle first in most meets. In the season-opening NU Duals, the heavyweight class was drawn first for NU’s losses against Purdue and Stanford. The Cats have struggled at the top of their lineup in the heavyweight, 125-, 133- and 141-pound weight classes, which led to early deficits of 15-0 against the Boilermakers and 18-0 against the Cardinal.
“We’d hope to have weight drawn where we can build momentum, like 141 or 149 pounds, and then go back and forth,” Cysewski said. “We’d hate to have a situation where we lose three matches in a row. If everyone does their job, the team result will take care of itself.”
Cysewski is relying on redshirt senior Eric Metzler (133) to regain his form from last year’s tournament, in which he went 2-0 against Nebraska and Missouri. Metzler, who has wrestled inconsistently this season, will be the most experienced player on the mat for the Cats. And though redshirt sophomore John Schoen (197) and junior Andrew Nadhir (149) each went 0-2 in the National Duals a year ago, both are enjoying their strongest seasons yet. Nadhir, who Cysewski called NU’s most consistent wrestler so far, will look to break the Cats’ slump this weekend-in the spotlight of the collegiate wrestling world.
“I was hoping we’d be doing a better job by now,” Nadhir said. “There is still a lot of time for improvement, and it’s not a lost season. We’ll come on late in the year like I personally did last year, and we’re headed in the right direction.”
